Not only is this page to
explain who and what Primaveralife is, but we will also give
explanations of how essential oils are made, hydrosols and
such. Enjoy!
PRIMAVERA LIFE
Essential Oils - your
guarantee of 100% pure, unaltered essential oils.
Every batch of oil is constantly monitored. Sample storage
and batch systems, gas chromatography and enantiomer
separation testing, help us to guarantee the purity and
quality of our oils.
Around the globe, natural health
enthusiasts have embraced essential oils. However, the food
quality oils are most commonly used, labeled as a pure
essential oil. Primavera Life
produce their own
crops and have 15 certifications
as well
as being audited every three months.
New
to America, Primavera Life is over 15 years old, founded in
Bavaria, Germany in 1986, and Europe's most respected and
largest selling manufacturer of therapeutic grade Essential
Oils. We feel confident in saying that Primavera Life
produces
The World's Finest Essential Oils.
They produce the
world's largest selection of certified organic and wild
harvested Essential Oils. 57% of their oils are organic,
20% are wild harvested and 23% are meticulously selected
exclusively from sources that meet their unsurpassed quality
standards.
THE IMPORTANCE OF
QUALITY
Many companies are
creating oils that are far less than satisfactory. If they
are less expensive it usually means they are synthetic or
poor distillates. Because an enormous amount of raw
material is used to make pure, natural essential oils, a
surprisingly large amount of products on the market have
been mixed with chemical substances or diluted with
lower-quality, commercial-grade oils. Poor quality EO's may
not only be ineffective, they may also cause bad reactions
and dangerous effects. Purchase only oils that have been
tested and found to be pure and free from contaminations.
The oils should also undergo strict olfactory (smell)
evaluation.
After we discovered that
many manufacturers taint their essential oils with foreign
substances in order to save on production costs, we here at
Natural Solutions - Holistic Beauty and Health
resolved to find a premier source of genuine and compete
essential oils. That is why we choose PrimaveraLife, not
just to retail, but to broker. Check out their
qualifications on our page, "About PrimaveraLife."
HISTORY OF AROMATHERAPY
Since ancient times,
mankind has used essential oils for their many healthful
benefits. In Persia and later in India, China, Babylon and
Egypt, essential oils were used for medicinal purposes, as
well as for embalming, annointing and making perfume.
The secrets of plant
aromas, however, were often reserved for kings or other
ruling elite. Perfumed ointments, oils, resins and spices
were so popular anciently that for thousands of years trade
routes were established to transport them.
With the development of
modern chemistry, essential oils became neglected. But
early this century, a French chemist named Rene-Maurice
Grattefosse began studying what he later named
"aromatherapy."
After severely burning his
arm in a lab accident, he thrust it into a vat of what he
thought was water. The liquid turned out to be lavender
oil. Surprisingly, Grattefosse's burn quickly healed
without leaving a scar. Pleased with his discovery, he
spent the rest of his life researching the value of
essential oils.
Aromatherapy quickly
became popular and well-known throughout Europe. But only
recently have the benefits of aromatherapy captured the
attention of America. As a result, more and more people are
enjoying the benefits resulting from Gattefosse's exiting
discovery, making aromatherapy a multimillion dollar
business in the U.S. What is also interesting to note, the
genes that make the odor receptors in the nose were just
discovered in 1991, says Avery Gilbert, Ph.D., a
biopsychologist and president of Synthetics, at a New
Jersey-based olfactory research and consulting firm.
Gilbert says, "That's when the molecular biologists became
interested in scent."
AROMATHERAPY TODAY
The art of aromatherapy is
the use of aromatic essential oils to benefit the body's
emotional and physical well-being. Science has discovered
that the sense of smell plays a significant role in overall
health. Essential oils offer several therapeutic benefits.
They can help diminish stress and tension, encourage
relaxation, build up the immune system, inspire
detoxification for given body organs, and effect emotions.
Essential oils have a
unique ability to affect the nerve tissues of the body. The
most immediate point of nerve contact is that of the
olfactory membranes located in the nose. These nerves
connect directly to a part of our brain known as the
olfactory bulb, which has direct connections to many other
areas of the mind. One of these nerve connections is to the
hypothalamus, the stalk of the brain that controls the
pituitary gland, which controls, in turn the rest of the
glandular system of the body. The brain then responds to
the given scent affecting one's emotions and chemical
balance. Some scents can relieve pain, give energy and
change our mood. Essential oils (EO's) are also absorbed by
the skin and carried throughout the body via the circulatory
system to reach all internal organs. The sense of smell is
also attached to the limbic area of the brain, which
controls our memory. The limbic area deals with responses
like fight or flight, pain and pleasure and perceptions of
bad and good. It is also highly involved with the
subconscious. The sense of smell has an immediate and
powerful impact on both memory and emotion. In a nutshell
then, when an essential oil is inhaled, its molecules enter
the cilia in the nose and are transported via the olfactory
system to the limbic system of the brain. The brain then
responds to particular aromas that affect emotional and
physical balance.
When essential oils are
applied externally, they are absorbed by the skin and then
carried immediately throughout the body, where they deliver
healthful benefits. Try placing a drop of lavender oil on
your cheek. You should be able to taste it within 10 to 15
seconds. Science has shown that essential oils can actually
penetrate cell walls, transporting nutrients and oxygen to
the inside of cells.
Essential oils act as
natural chelators. In fact, when diffused throughout a
room, essential oils can rid the air of dust and other
harmful particles.
Everyone has different
memories that are invoked by certain smells. Therefore, a
given scent may be very pleasing to one person and saddening
to another. In addition, everyone's nervous system is
different. Hence, even our neurological responses will
differ when two individuals are exposed to the exact same
scent. Our advice: Be very careful when using any EO's
therapeutically (especially internally) as the subjective
responses of the therapy can vary from individual to
individual, even when using the exact same blend and
regime. This does not mean they are responding wrongly or
that the EO is bad, it just means that a person's
neurological polarity is reversed from that of other people.
METHOD OF EXTRACTING
PLANTS
Scent is the first clue to
the presence of a plant essence, or essential oil as it is
called after it has been extracted by distillation. It's a
cocktail of organic compounds found in minute glands in
various parts (cells) of the plant. It contains the aromatic
and therapeutic principles used for flavoring, healing and
cosmetics. They are also used for aromatherapy, but mainly
applied with massage. Many of the plants which are processed
for their essential oils are grown in herb gardens;
angelica, aniseed, basil, coriander, caraway, clary,
chamomile, fennel, hyssop, lavender, melissa, peppermint,
rose geranium, rose, rosemary, sage, spearmint, sweet
marjoram and thyme. They are also found in the trees growing
nearby; in pine, juniper, thuja and eucalyptus.
When extracted they are usually in a liquid form and
although called 'oils,' they feel more like water. Some
plant essences are found in seeds like coriander and
aniseed; many are located in leaves such as rosemary;
several are in flowers like rose; some in fruit peel such as
orange; in woods like sandalwood; in gums and resins like
frankincense; in bark like cinnamon, and in roots such as
orris.
Some plants yield more than one oil. One North American
shrub, Lindera benzoin, provides lavender-scented oil from
its leaves, a camphor-scented oil from its twigs, and oil
with the scent of allspice from its berries and an oil with
the scent of wintergreen from its bark. The Orange tree
gives us sweet or bitter orange from the peel, and yet it
gives us neroli from the blossom, as well as petitgrain from
the twigs.
Essential oils are highly volatile. 'Volare' means 'to fly'
and it is the number of free electrons flying off which
causes the rapid evaporation and gives us the odiferous
quality. Different oils evaporate at different rates,
resulting in top, middle and base notes which is significant
to those composing perfumes. The evaporation rate is
scientifically measured but the 'note' also includes a
subjective assessment on the strength of odour.
The fragrant essence of flowers like lilac and jasmine is
released to drift in the air. To capture this type of
essence, the flower must be processed immediately after it
is picked so that the perfume can be absorbed before it is
dissipated in the air. To accomplish this, it can be
necessary to position the extraction machinery right next to
the cultivated plants as is sometimes done with jasmine.
In the case of scents like rose or violets, we need to put
our noses nearer to the center of the flower. These flowers
release their perfume essence more slowly which allows a
reasonable amount of time for harvested flowers to reach the
processing stills. But some flowers halt scent production
completely, as soon as they are picked, and from these, it
is almost impossible to obtain an essential oil.
Leaves and the hard parts of plants are not so difficult. To
smell the aromatic oil in a leaf it only requires a little
pressure or rubbing on the surface of the leaf. This action
breaks the cell walls of the tiny glands containing the
plant essence thereby releasing it to evaporate. The scent
pockets of some leaves which are near the surface or have
thin cell walls will be released by warm sunlight or the
pressure of gentle rain, as happens with the leaves of sweet
briar, the eglantine rose. Others, like the oil glands of
sweet myrtle, are deeply embedded and need to be pressed
quite hard to release their spicy orange scent.
Rose, bark, seeds and wood retain their scent internally for
long periods and unless bruised, are seldom fragrant to the
casual passing nose. These are generally chopped and then
subjected to water or steam distillation.
WHAT DOES TOP NOTE,
HEART NOTE, BASE NOTE MEAN?
Top notes describe lightly
volatile fragrances that last only a short time. Their
effect is cool, light, fresh, invigorating; most of them
enhance concentration. Citrus oils for example have a clear
top note.
Heart notes are flower oils such as Rose, Jasmine, Mimosa,
and also include woody-spicy scents. They all last a little
longer, and with their harmonizing, balancing but also
sensually stimulating, aphrodisiac effect, they are the
center, the “heart” of a fragrant composition.
Base notes have a relaxing, stabilizing, grounding effect;
for example: Vetiver. Base notes are long lasting, heavy
fragrances, often from roots or resinous oils.
HOW DOES COLD PRESSING
WORK?
There are different
pressing methods used to obtain the so-called citrus oils:
Small incisions are made on the surface of the peel; the
Essential Oil released is sprayed off with water; afterwards
oil and water are separated using a centrifuge. After the
juice is pressed out of the citrus fruit, the left-over peel
is pressed and mixed with water. The Essential Oil is
obtained from this oil-water-mixture using a centrifuge
HOW DOES GAS
CHROMATOGRAPHY WORK?
The various ingredients of
an Essential Oil are separated and classified in the gas
chromatograph A carrying gas transports a small quantity of
vaporized Essential Oil through a column. The molecules of
the different ingredients assume a certain order; each
ingredient generates the so-called “peak”, a jagged swing of
the graphic instrument (comparable to ECG or EEG).
This enables the quantity and quality of the ingredients of
an oil to be determined. Recorded data are compared with the
corresponding sample to ascertain whether the oil is genuine
and unadulterated.
The GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectography) is a
combined method, that analyzes the ingredients on the basis
of their molecular mass spectrum, and facilitates even more
sophisticated quality testing.
WHAT ARE FIXATIVES?
These are agents that fix
other scents. They are used to bind lightly volatile
fragrances in perfume compositions. To compose the
harmonious development of a perfume – i.e. the single
fragrant components (top, heart and base notes) are
perceived at different moments – one uses fixatives that are
a kind of “anchor” for the fragrances. Vegetable fixatives
are for example Musk Mallow, Styrax, Benzoin, Sandalwood and
Vetiver. Does Primavera Life use fixatives? Their
essential oil does not have any fixatives in them,
some oils like the 10% neroli or any of the 10% oils are
alcohol based. Theirs are 100 % pure essential oils
without fixatives.
WHAT IS STEAM
DISTILLATION?
This is the normal method
of extraction for aromatic leaves and the harder plant
parts. Lavender is one of the few flowers which is robust
enough to be steam distilled. Distillation involves passing
hot water or steam through the plant material in a stainless
steel or glass still and channeling the produced vapor into
a condenser. It is only suitable for flowers, leaves, bark
or wood which will not suffer change from the heart. When
cooled, the oil floats on the water and is collected as it
separates. Tabletop 'stills' are sold mainly as a novelty as
the amount one could distill domestically would be measured
in drops.
